The Changeling Rules Cathay! The "Real" Emperor Driven South! Kislev Rides East! (Video)

Riskafish

Hey guys really excited about this, there is literally mountains of evidence in plain sitefor it so let me know what you think. I also posted a text version however the pictures in my video help explain stuff alot clearer but I know some of you don't like clicking so here you go xD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJdzmtZmP8k&feature=youtu.be

Script:
Hello there my friends, my Riskafish and I am here with another video on Warhammer 3. Ever since the day that CA literally hid whispers hinting The Warden and the Paunch in the Shadow and the Blade trailer, it has always been good analyse the information we get for any hidden hints and the reason I have made this video is that I think I have discovered another hidden secret in the Warhammer 3 trailer that pertains to the true ruler of Grand Cathay.

The Emperor Usurped
The first thing to establish is that something is very ominous with Grand Cathay in the trailer. The leaders of each race normally start in their races capital city. We have Karl Franz in Altdorf, Thorgrim in Karak-a-Karaz, Manfred in Castle Drakenhof, King Louen in Couronne, Orion in Talysn, Tyrion in Lothern, Malaketh in Naggrond, Settra in Khemri, Luthor Harkon in the Vampire Coast. That said, is clear from the trailer that the Celestial Dragon Emperor does not start in Wei-Jin the capital of Cathay.

Ley me explain. All of the pieces shown on the map represent legendary lords. The blue piece for example is decorated in the same way as Katarina's headdress and is coloured blue which is visually in line with her ice magic in the trailer. The Kislevite forces were also facing Khorne in the trailer and there is a red piece further along with a oblong head 2 horns and two tusks which I believe matches U'Zul Skulltaker Khorne's official champion, a daemon prince who was born by the actions of a bloodthirster, takes the form of bloodletter and rides a juggernaut, the three units shwnn for Khorne, not to mention that the battle is literally on the road of skulls and his name is Skulltaker. The Green Dragon piece then is highly likely to represent the Celestial Dragon Emperor.

Now for a basic geography lesson. Cathay has three important points of reference and they are its rivers. The most northern river runs east of Wei-Jin to the sea. The central river runs diagonally across the centre of Cathay and the southern river runs east out of the Lands of the Celestial Dragon Monks. In the Warhammer 3 trailer, we can see that the piece for the Celestial Dragon Emperor is in a province called the Celestial Riverlands, which is almost certainly the river connected to the Land of the Celestial Dragon Monks, hence why it has the name celestial in its title. Not to mention there is an angled river, literally running through the name Grand Cathay on the map above it.

Wei-Jin is significantly further to the north/north-east depending on the map and yet the Celestial Dragon Emperor is nowhere near his own capital. The question then, is why isn't he in his own capital, and is there someone there in his place.

A Surprisingly Innocent Monkey king
If one knows the lore of Grand Cathay, then they will know that at least on one occasion, the Monkey King has taken power however there is something very suspicious in the Warhammer 3 tailer. Grand Cathay is revealed at the end of the Warhammer 3 trailer but the old man keeps two areas covered and they are the west and east of Cathay. The papers to the east cover the area where Wei-Jin would normally be and have a suspicious symbol on them eerily similar to the eight pointed star of Chaos. The western paper on the hand covers another important location, you see monkey warriors, the race of the Monkey King is said to reside in the Mountains of heaven which is not shown on any Warhamemr map. Cathay however is a old name for China and clearly draws inspiration form it and low and behold, there is a location known as the Moutnains of Heaven or alternatively Tian Sian in the north-west of China, which if infered on to a Warhammer map would place it next to the Warpstone Desert. It is also worth pointing out that the Monkey King is known to trade with Clan Eshin so him starting next to a location with warpstone, something of great value to the Skaven, also makes a lot of sense. The reason why I think this has been concealed is that it would confirm that the Monkey King isn't the one who has usurped the Dragon Emperor and it would draw attention to the Chaos symbol.

There is another point that also supports this, Katarina is currently fighting the forces of Khorne at the top of the Mountains of Mourn. Now Kislev controls a moderate piece of land to the north of the Empire and the only other land it controls is the Wheatlands which is located in the north-west of the Darklands. The question then is why is Katarina traveling so far east away from Kislev? This gets more puzzling because of the letter on her desk which says "We must act quickly and so I send (?) you with my complete authority. While I secure the throne [and the](?) nation's borders". This straight up says that Katarina’s purpose in coming east is to secure a nations border yet she is moving away from Kislev and is miles away from its closest territory, so the nation border she is referring to securing can't be Kislev. it is almost certainly referring to Cathay which is even more likely because hey presto there is a map of Cathay on the Tzarinas desk. Don't forget that Kislev would not move because of some monkey king, Kislev marches out to face Chaos which has usurped the throne of Cathay.

Conquer YOUR Daemons
The first thing to establish here is that the official saying for Warhammer 3 is conquer your daemons however while this may have a literal sense in Warhammer, ordinarily this refers to one confronting their OWN evils and there is evidence that this is also the case in Warhammer 3. The letter on the table is addressed to Yuri Kovalenko, a man who despite being loyal to Kislev has had both his personality and one of his arms corrupted by an arcane crystal he took form a Chaos warrior. In this case, "Conquer Your Daemons" could refer to Yuri's battle with the Chaos within himself possibly displaying as a campaign mechanic. My favourite idea however is that Yuri is Katarin's daemon. He is already partially corrupted by Chaos and Katarina is sending him north to deal with a Daemon Prince rumoured to be Be'Lakor. What if Yuri falls to Chaos precisely because of the Tzarina's orders, forcing Katrina into a situation where she must conquer her daemons.

Now we return to Cathay where I feel a similar kind of thing is being set up. In the lore, Tzeentch who is known as Chi'an Chi in the east has a cult in Grand Cathay and while its popularity amongst the masses is never mentioned, it is known that the cult had managed to permeate the upper echelons of the aristocracy in Belchai and alarmingly, the lore makes a point to say that it is unknown if worship of Tzeentch was forbidden or not. In an interview with Mark Bedford, a Warhammer studio designer and conceptualist, he said "people will be surprised with the Cathian Hierarchy" and most people are expecting The Dragon Emperor or the Monkey King to reside in Wei-Jin, which would not be a surprise. Now let’s figure this out, Grand Cathay a nation so anti-chaos that it built the world’s longest fortification just to keep Chaos out, may be allowing the worship of Tzeentch with a following in even the aristocracy and upper echelons of Cathian society. My theory is that the Changeling known as Tzeentchs Trickster and an existence able to take any form but that of its god, has taken the form of the Cathian Emperor and has usurped the true Celestial Dragon Emperor.

Let me explain why I think it is the Changeling specifically. The first is that in the Warhammer 3 trailer, the trait mentioned when showing the lord of change, Tzeentchs personal greater daemon, is deceit and the Changeling is said to said to manifest the part of Tzeentchs psyche orientated towards pranks and deceit, earning it the name as the deceiving horror. Second, it is able to take the form of anything except Tzeentch himself so the phrase "Conquer Your Daemons" could refer to the Emperor of Cathay facing his Doppelganger. Thirdly, the Changeling is arguably the most powerful existence under Tzeentch. This is an existence that has started a war between Chaos gods by stealing rotten apples form Nurgle and leaving them in Slannesh’s Palace, he has even locked Khorne, the blood god himself out of the brass citadel, he locked the blood god out of his own home. Not surprisingly all of the chaos gods want to kill the Changeling, but it always escapes unharmed Not to mention that the changlnig can take the form of any greater daemon. He is the greatest deceiver of Tzeentch, the great deceiver.

One final note is that Egrimm Van Horstman, who is believed to have been the advisor for the first game, had his cloak made form hair that the Changeling cut off form the Dark Prince Slannesh while he slept. A lot of people have been saying that the advisor in the trailer looks like a young advisor from game 3 and while we don't know if that is true. One thing is true about the Changeling, it always leaves clues in plain sight, I can't think of a clue in plain sight, can you?

Wyvax#7456

You did great work in working out the provinces of the map, but I think you're reading way to much into the chess pieces in the trailer. There's no reason to believe that it's an early hint to indicate where 3 of the factions start in game, especially so ridiculously close to one another. It's almost a certainty that Katarin will begin in Kislev proper on the west side of the map, with the Dragon Emperor beginning in Weijin on the east edge.

lucibuis#6195

😱

MythrilSoul

@Riskafish

in the trailer katarin is like in the middle of the darklands, almost reaching ind, doest it mean she will start there? does that mean ind is coming?

its a trailer meant to show the starting factions and have a cool cinematic shot, nothing more.
lets not go to overboard with the simple placement of the chess pieces of the trailer.

bli-nk#6314

Not sure about the rest of it but the idea that the Celestial Emperor is writing to Katrina is interesting because it does somewhat feel it might not be Katrina's father who wrote that letter.

That and Kislev so far east in the trailer + the information about Cathay's hierarchy being something different could be related. It would be interesting to see the true Celestial Emperor forced to fight usurpers (similar to KF's start in Altdorf) but on a larger scale if the Monkey King leads his own faction, there is a usurper on the Throne of the Celestial Empire, and there are a handful of provinces which are unsure who is the true Emperor with the actual Emperor leading a smaller faction warning and asking for aid from Allies who are part of the Old World.

I wouldn't even be surprised if the royal blood of Kislev somehow traces its way back to the first Celestial Emperor- it was the Gospodars coming west that established Kislev, led by an Ice Mage Queen- where those tribes were before that is not spoken of much in the lore and could easily be tied to Cathay.

Personally, I do buy the part that it is NOT Katrina's father writing that letter and I also think the Cathay start will be mired in a civil war, it seems the most natural way to give a Cathay start the right feel of starting small and expanding to large and mirroring the Empire in a way- though I think the scale will be made to seem larger as KF was only the Prince of Altdorf and elected as Emperor.

The Celestial Emperor is part of a dynasty which has ruled Cathay for thousands of years and might be facing a Chaos crisis on the scale of the Skaven war which wracked the Empire and brought it nearly to its knees 1400 years prior to KF being elected Emperor.

LordSolarMach#5538

@MythrilSoul in the trailer Katarin is on the Skull Road, north of the Mountains of Mourn, already having passed through Zorn Uzkul, and is approaching Nan-Gau (which the Khorne marker is just north of).

MythrilSoul

LordSolarMach said:

@MythrilSoul in the trailer Katarin is on the Skull Road, north of the Mountains of Mourn, already having passed through Zorn Uzkul, and is approaching Nan-Gau (which the Khorne marker is just north of).

yep you are right but that only makes the map even wonkier, if shes in the skull road and to her side is the warpstone desert then the skull road is like a province away from the city of spires in ind!
thats some crazy map shift CA did there

saweendra#3399

MythrilSoul said:

LordSolarMach said:

@MythrilSoul in the trailer Katarin is on the Skull Road, north of the Mountains of Mourn, already having passed through Zorn Uzkul, and is approaching Nan-Gau (which the Khorne marker is just north of).

yep you are right but that only makes the map even wonkier, if shes in the skull road and to her side is the warpstone desert then the skull road is like a province away from the city of spires in ind!
thats some crazy map shift CA did there

so ind chances grow yay

LordSolarMach#5538

MythrilSoul said:

yep you are right but that only makes the map even wonkier, if shes in the skull road and to her side is the warpstone desert then the skull road is like a province away from the city of spires in ind!
thats some crazy map shift CA did there

The map might not have a normal orientation. At risk of spamming my map, think about it like this:

ie. "up" might not strictly be north, the right not east, etc.

Canuovea#6291

Yes, I think we're going to be looking at a reoriented map. And if that one is accurate, well, maybe we have some hope for Southern Realms too.

#326161

Dont forget, the size is TWICE that of the Vortex and we also get a new ME total world map.

Gotrek_Beastslayer

Ohohoho, this is so good~

55JoNNo#4925

interesting and well thought out vid